This LINGUIST List issue is a review of a book published by one of our
supporting publishers, commissioned by our book review editorial staff. We
welcome discussion of this book review on the list, and particularly invite
the author(s) or editor(s) of this book to join in. To start a discussion of
this book, you can use the
Discussion form on the LINGUIST List website. For
the subject of the discussion, specify "Book Review" and the issue number of
this review. If you are interested in reviewing a book for LINGUIST, look for
the most recent posting with the subject "Reviews: AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW", and
follow the instructions at the top of the message. You can also contact the
book review staff directly.

Language and the Internet (second edition) presents an updated description of how the Internet is affecting the way in which people use language. It covers a wide range of Internet genres, including e-mails, chatgroups, virtual worlds, the Web, instant messaging, and blogging. In this book David Crystal argues that the appearance of ''Netspeak'' should not be considered as a challenge or even threat to standard usages. Instead, the Internet has created growth in the variety and creativity of language use.

In Chapter 1, David Crystal points out the aim of this book: to explore the ways in which the Internet medium is having an effect on language. Crystal first briefly discusses the aspects in which language varies, then describes commonly seen Internet situations, and finally introduces the term ''Netspeak''. Very importantly, Crystal notes that ''salient features of Netspeak ... have already begun to be used outside of the situation of computer-mediated communication, even though the medium has become available to most people only in the past decade or so'' (pp. 20-1).

In Chapter 2, the medium of Netspeak, David Crystal first looks at the differences between speech and writing and consequently compares ''Netspeak'' with speaking and writing respectively. In so doing, Crystal concludes that ''on the whole, Netspeak is better seen as written language which has been pulled some way in the direction of speech than spoken language which has been written down'' (pp. 51). Crystal calls it a ''third medium'' (pp. 52), given that it is not simply a collective of spoken and written language. In this chapter Crystal also discusses ''Netspeak'' maxims in light of the maxims of conversations proposed by the philosopher H. P. Grice.

In Chapter 3, finding an identity, David Crystal first presents the Wired style's ten usage principles after Hale and Scanlon (1999), which are 1) The medium matters, 2) Play with voice, 3) Flaunt your subcultural literacy, 4) Transcend the technical, 5) Capture the colloquial, 6) Anticipate the future, 7) Be irreverent, 8) Brave the new world of new media, 9) Go global, and 10) Play with dots and dashes and slashes. In the following, Crystal describes some distinctive linguistic features of ''Netspeak'', for example, its unique spelling and punctuation usages. Crystal observes that up until this stage the most distinctive features of ''Netspeak'' are still located in its lexicon and graphology, while unique grammatical features are much less frequent.

In Chapters 4-8, David Crystal examines in detail the language used in six different Internet situations, namely, emails (Chapter 4), chatgroups (Chapter 5), virtual worlds (Chapter 6), the web (Chapter 7), and blogging and instant messaging (Chapter 8), given that ''Netspeak is a complex and mixed-message scenario, which can really only be understood by a detailed consideration of the individual Internet situations'' (pp. 98).

In each case, Crystal has discovered ''clear signs of the emergence of a distinctive variety of language, with characteristics closely related to the properties of its technological context as well as to the intentions, activities, and (to some extent) personalities of the users'' (pp. 258). In these five chapters, Crystal not only explores the linguistics of different Internet genres but also how each Internet situation actually works. In this sense, these chapters partly serve as a manual to Internet novices.

In Chapter 9, the linguistic future of the Internet, David Crystal argues that a new communication technology inevitably has linguistic consequences. Furthermore, language serves as an index of social change and the arrival of the Internet as a means of communication definitively qualifies as a radical social change. Both factors point to potential changes in the way in which people use their language. Crystal also remarks that research into Internet language is still in its early stages. Given that ''Netspeak is a development of millennial significance'' (pp. 272) and that ''a new medium of linguistic communication does not arrive very often, in the history of the race'' (pp. 272), continuous and larger-scale investigation into Internet language is strongly called for.

EVALUATION

In a lucid and accessible style, David crystal provides an engaging and comprehensive description of language use in different Internet situations. This book should fascinate anyone who is interested in issues regarding language and the Internet, students and researchers alike. Although the Internet has been with the world for approximately four decades, up until this stage _Language and the Internet_ is the only academic work that investigates the Internet solely from a linguistic perspective. In this sense, it is a remarkably pioneering and innovative product that deserves special attention.

In this book David Crystal implies that computers as a medium of communication are prompting incipient linguistic changes. To some extent, I think that this should be one of the major themes for a book on language and the Internet. Unfortunately, this issue is not explored in detail. Instead, it is only briefly touched upon here and there. Additionally, the concept of language change in progress is also relevant to many usages in computer-mediated communication (cf. Trujimura 2007), which is also mostly ignored in this book.

In this book David Crystal presents a thorough description of the way in which the Internet is affecting language use. In so doing, he exclusively focuses on the English language. Nevertheless, as even Crystal himself notes, the Internet is in nature a global phenomenon. In other words, different languages frequently come into contact in computer-mediated communication. In this sense, it would be enlightening if the interface between different languages on the Internet as well as its motivations and consequences, among others, were discussed in this book (cf. Gao 2006, Hinrichs 2006).

In discussing the change in the way people use their language on the Internet, Crystal situates the change in specific technological contexts. In so doing, the author clearly attributes the change to the pressure from technological constraints, which is mostly true. However, aside from technological factors, socio-psychological motivations should also play an essential role in the way people use their language in Internet communication. For example, as is documented in Gao (2007), the desire to construct an attractive identity functions prominently in the use of Chinese Internet language by Chinese youth. Therefore, in accounting for (potential) linguistic changes, Crystal largely ignores the creativity or agency of language users.

Considering that this book does not thoroughly explore these important (socio)linguistic issues involving language and the Internet, it is more appropriately categorized as a descriptive introduction to language use on the Internet aimed at a general audience than a technical linguistic study. Similarly, in this book readers seeking a social political analysis of online language use should not find what they are looking for (Warschauer 2002). Nevertheless, as a groundbreaking book, Language and the Internet should remain an enormously influential publication for scholars in the field of linguistics and language and media, among others, for many years to come.

Liwei Gao is currently Assistant Professor of Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. His research interests are primarily in sociolinguistics, Chinese linguistics, and applied linguistics.
Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue